The Small-Scale Intimate Scenes Of Sicko Are Great. The Michael Moore-Centric Material? Less So.

Fahrenheit 9/11 had catapulted Michael Moore to a level of fame unheard of for the vast majority of not just documentary filmmakers in America, but filmmakers in any genre in America. The dude became a part of the Bush-era zeitgeist with his 2004 box office phenomenon and while I had heavily mixed feelings on that movie, there's no denying it struck a nerve with people and it set expectations high for whatever his follow-up project would end up being. Turns out, his next feature film would be Sicko, an extensive look at the American health care system, a hot-button topic in American politics as the rampant attempts to revoke the Affordable Healthcare Act under the newest presidential administration have demonstrated.


For the first half-hour or so of Sicko, Michael Moore remains firmly behind the camera as he only provides narration over footage depicting the woes of average American citizens suffering under America's approach to healthcare. Once this portion of Sicko is done, Moore becomes a prominent on-camera participant of the film as he looks at how America's healthcare had gotten to its then-current state while the second half of the movie concentrates on Moore traveling to a number of foreign countries and examining just how they approach their own healthcare systems that Moore feels are superior to what America has.

While Michael Moore is widely known as a documentarian who leans heavily on the comedic in his work, the scenes that work best in Sicko are it's most bleak and stark in tone. These scenes in question are the ones focusing on the woes of normal Americans who have been put into financial despair or even lost loved ones to insurance companies who refuse to help them in their hours of need. There aren't jokes to help lighten up the proceedings here or even brief on-screen appearances by Moore to serve as a segway in between these assorted stories. Instead, an assortment of Americans get to tell their horrific stories related to healthcare and it's a notably impactful way to kick off the running time of Sicko.

After that, Moore becomes a more prominent presence in the movie with extended screentime dedicated to Moore conducting an interview with his Canadian relatives about their home countries healthcare system. While it's not a steadfast 100% rule for me, I'm typically more interested in documentaries that allow its filmmakers to be behind the camera so the subject they're talking about can get the spotlight. When you have a Dinesh D'Souza or a Morgan Spurlock eating up screentime in front of the camera, the proceedings become more oriented on their own personalities instead of the weighty topics they're trying to cover in documentary form.

With Michael Moore, a little bit goes a long way and I did sometimes wish he would step back in terms of presence as, for instance, facets of his narration (like him playing dumb in his vocals about where people pay for their hospital stay in a European hospital) just felt poorly handled to me, it feels like you could let the interview segments or even just let certain shots or visuals speak for themselves. Moore's humor typically derives from over-the-top places and you see some of those types of gags in here with bits like a demonstration of how wealthy a foreign doctor is, and while that is a humorous moment, a heightened style doesn't suit every aspect of the movie. A late-in-the-game stunt wherein Moore tries to get healthcare for 9/11 volunteer workers by trying to get them into Guantanamo Bay feels like the nadir of Moore putting sensationalized stunts above actually exploring his topic at hand in an insightful fashion.

This whole sequence plays out as if Moore got so caught up in trying to top the controversy of his prior feature film that he lost track of providing substance. Luckily, the rest of Sicko, more often than not, provides concise and engaging information about the differing healthcare systems of different countries, though I'm not shocked to hear some of his explanation for foreign helathcare systems aren't 100% truthful since, even while watching it, I found myself feeling like some of Moore's explanations were overly streamlined., Still, when it's concentrated on humanistic elements, Sicko does work mighty well, but unfortunately, Michael Moore's affinity for misplaced overt comedy does hurt the overall project.